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A pampered Long Island princess hits the road in a converted bus with her wilderness-loving husband, travels the country for one year, and brings it all hilariously to life in this offbeat and romantic memoir. Doreen and Tim are married psychiatrists with a twist: She’s a self-proclaimed Long Island princess, grouchy couch potato, and shoe addict. He's an affable, though driven, outdoorsman.

You'll Grow Out of It

In You'll Grow Out of It, Jessi Klein offers - through an incisive collection of real-life stories - a relentlessly funny yet poignant take on a variety of topics she has experienced along her strange journey to womanhood and beyond. These include her "transformation from Pippi Longstocking-esque tomboy to are-you-a-lesbian-or-what tom man", attempting to find watchable porn, and identifying the difference between being called "ma'am" and "miss" ("miss sounds like you weigh 99 pounds").

Hell Divers: The Hell Divers Trilogy, Book 1

More than two centuries after World War III poisoned the planet, the final bastion of humanity lives on massive airships circling the globe in search of a habitable area to call home. Aging and outdated, most of the ships plummeted back to Earth long ago. The only thing keeping the two surviving lifeboats in the sky are Hell Divers - men and women who risk their lives by diving to the surface to scavenge for parts the ships desperately need.

Seriously...I'm Kidding

"I've experienced a whole lot the last few years and I have a lot to share. So I hope that you'll take a moment to sit back, relax and enjoy the words I've put together for you in this book. I think you'll find I've left no stone unturned, no door unopened, no window unbroken, no rug unvacuumed, no ivories untickled. What I'm saying is, let us begin, shall we?" (Ellen DeGeneres)

I Know What I'm Doing - and Other Lies I Tell Myself: Dispatches from a Life Under Construction

Jen Kirkman wants to be the voice in your head that says, "Hey, you're okay. Even if you sometimes think you aren't! And especially if other people try to tell you you're not." In I Know What I'm Doing - and Other Lies I Tell Myself, Jen offers up all the gory details of a life permanently in progress. She reassures you that it's okay to not have life completely figured out, even when you reach middle age (and find your first gray pubic hair!).

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Andre M. Gorelkin says:"Slow start but a gripping experience"

Audible Editor Reviews

"This is a priceless collection of memories that we all share in one form or another - I can guarantee that at least half of you have avoided washing your hands as a small child, someone you know has eaten paste or drank ink, not made your bed or attempted to organize your tools! Each of you have met with similar disastrous results from childhood into elderlyhood! Enjoy Stokes' collection of remembrances and get ready to belly-laugh your afternoon away!" (Charla White, WordsAPlenty.com)

Publisher's Summary

We all have that one older funny family member. You know the one, he tells stories from his experiences and usually has people rolling their eyes. William Stokes is that person! He presents a delightful collection of memories that are truly life lessons even today! Stokes, through his memories and wit, provides opportunities to learn through laughter, sharing of memories and love.

Many will shake their heads in remembrance of similar experiences and crack a smile if not a full on belly laugh!

From chapters on "The Hammer is in the Petunias" to "Merry Christmas" one cannot help but feel warm and comforted in those memories he shares that are full of life lessons. His writing style is comfortable, breezing along with ease and sucking the listener along on the ride. Jump aboard and experience those eye rolling, belly laughing moments; it will be a wild ride!

This was originally self-published in 1968 and has been re-published in all modern formats as a birthday present from a grandson to his grandfather.

What a great book and so much great talent in the narration. Most of the voices are very familiar to me, having listened to them in previous books. Did you ever sit around listening to your grandfather tell stories as a kid and later in life wished you could remember them all or wished someone would have wrote them down? This is exactly that! This is a great collection of short stories by Bill Stokes that are certainly funny and all very relatable! Each of the narrators do an excellent job bringing this book to life! I really enjoyed it!

If you could sum up Ship the Kids on Ahead in three words, what would they be?

"Slice of Americana" Each story is a slice of "Americana life" that had me reminiscing of my own father and grandfather and the stories they used to tell.It's a collection of short stories or columns from Bill Stokes' time at the Wisconsin State Journal and each of them we can all relate to. Stories of life at home, raising a family, work etc.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Had me laughing out loud at times as I could relate to many of the stories and things said, we all have someone like this in our family or have gone through one of these scenarios in our own life.

Any additional comments?

Well written and extremely well presented by all those who narrated, each narrator brings their own style but also manage to still present it as Bill Stokes ideas. Reminds me of "A Christmas Story" telling tales of life that we can all relate to. I recommend this to anyone who wants to step out of today's cares and worries and step back into that time in life when times were simpler.

Listening to this book brought back memories of my childhood as the author told me about his. There were also stories about his family and experiences he has had in his life. I find it very interesting to listen to his stories. They are short, and simple and engaging. I like that there are several different narrators because that keeps it new and fresh. If you like Garrison Keillor you will like this book. As a bonus, there is a 100% chance that you will learn a new way to battle a cold.

I received this book at no charge in exchange for my honest and unbiased review from audiobook boom.

This is an enjoyable, whimsical collection of anecdotes, and experiences. Imagine a little bit of the absurd family stories of Dave Barry and the down home charm of Garrison Keillor and you've pretty much got Bill Stokes, who wrote these as short columns called "Stoke's Pokes."

And short they are, which is the tome's only negative. Some of these are really short, so they don't delve much deeper than the surface humor. I was hoping for some more depth or life lessons learned, but alas, sometimes things in life are just funny because. And that's OK. Clearly Stokes is not trying to draw any deep meaning on most of these. But just sharing a good chuckle.

I'm OK with that.

(I was provided this by the publisher audio book at no charge in exchange for an unbiased review via Audiobook Boom)

To be honest, I originally picked this book because I saw that Sean Runnette is one of the narrators, and he is hands down my favourite narrator. Nonetheless, the other narrators are a pleasure to listen to as well, and I was genuinely surprised that I enjoyed this title as much as I did!

As for the book, Ship the Kids on Ahead is lighthearted and wholesome, and all of the short stories are so warm and cozy to listen to. I am such a sucker for old Americana (though I myself am not American), but the fact that these stories are non-fiction/memoir and written with so much honesty just makes them shine even more.

There are groan worthy “Dad jokes” sprinkled here and there and I could not help but laugh every time they made an appearance. Moreover, I think the mixture of stories in this book provide a little bit of everything that anyone can appreciate. For me, the stories set in winter really warmed the cockles of my heart. As a Canadian, my Father and late Grandparents all told me similar stories of life during the long, harsh, and unrelenting winters, and I was suddenly flooded with unexpected nostalgia.

Lovers of short stories and non-fiction need this wonderful and well written book in their collection! By the end of Ship the Kid on Ahead you can’t help but adore the very talented and lovable author. What a delight!

This audiobook was given by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review via Audiobook Boom- Thank you! Ship the Kids on Ahead has made it onto my “listen again” list!

Would you consider the audio edition of Ship the Kids on Ahead to be better than the print version?

Of course, audible is almost always better than print. That said, this collection was narrated/voiced by some of my favorite talents. Thank you all for bringing this book to life!

What was one of the most memorable moments of Ship the Kids on Ahead?

My favorite short was in March, when the teller was trying to cure the common cold! Super funny, and yet totally true!

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I've listened to several books by Joe Hempel, which is the primary reason I purchased this book, instead of trying to win a review copy. I knew it would be good.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

There were several scenes that made me laugh, hard. As I said above, the common cold cure was hilarious! That scene made me spit-take my drink, and inhaling diet coke is not something I'll soon forget. There are lots of chuckles to be had, though.

Any additional comments?

Anyone who has a relative, be it parent or grandparent, who is loquacious, and likes the retelling of lifelong anecdotes, will at least appreciate this book. Coming from a close family with a ton of local history, I might appreciate it more than normal. I absolutely love quirky stories!

This is such a wonderful detour from all of the seriousness in other books. Bill Stokes' words a magic for the soul. I don't remember the last time I've listened to a book and smiled from start to finish.

The narration was absolutely phenomenal. Everyone did a great job and I am having a very hard time trying to single out if one was better than another... so, I'm not going to!

My advice to anyone is to just get it. If you're looking at this right now, wondering if you should buy it, stop thinking and just get it. This will be your best audiobook investment this year. It's rare when you find a book like this. Bill Stokes is a master of words and they are spoken by the masters of narration.

This book is a compendium of pieces written by Bill Stokes for his column 'Stokes Pokes' during the 60's. The original was published in 1968 and it was revived this year again and released in digital format for Kindle and in audiobook format for audible. I am grateful to all those people who contributed to give life and a modern form to this piece of literature.

'Shipping the Kids on Ahead' is like traveling to the past. These are short stories about daily things like getting over a cold (in a very special way), having your car stuck in the snow or about the children's needs for school. Each story is told in a light humorous tone and one almost feels part of the Stokes family.

I have read the Kindle version and listened to the audiobook, and the second has the added value of being narrated by top narrators nowadays. They all do a wonderful job but when I knew that Joe Hempel and R.C. Bray were part of the team I HAD to listen to this book and it was so worth it!

Let me say at the outset that Ship the Kids on Ahead is not the typical sort of audiobook or reading material that I tend to gravitate toward, even in the realm of non-fiction. The time I've devoted to reading non-fiction as a whole is woefully inadequate, unfortunately, and tends to lean toward science-related topics or historical events rather than the slice-of-life minutia that Bill Stokes wrote about for the Wisconsin State Journal.

Happily, I found myself surprisingly entertained by Stokes view of small-town America circa the 1950s and '60s. Obviously, quite a lot has changed since that era, but there are still plenty of timeless experiences that are easy to relate to, particularly in the matters of family and parenting, which is a topic that Stokes turns to fairly often. And I'm right there with him in thinking there needs to be time off work for the random occurrences of dumb days, those days that begin with a sudden breaking of a shoe lace and a small piece of shell in your eggs, portents that this will be a no-good, very bad, rotten day, one better spent in bed, perhaps reading a book.

These short stories are narrated by a handful of performers and all of them are up to the task of bringing Stokes's words to life. RC Bray and Joe Hempel in particular were stand-outs for me, and they seemed to really connect with the material. Xe Sands, too, brought a nice feminine touch to the production for a few segments and it's clear that I'll have to keep an eye out for more of her work in the future.

Ship the Kids on Ahead presents the kind of columns we no longer see very much of in newspapers (at least by my estimation), and Stokes words in particular were designed to give the reader a smile or a bit of a chuckle after reading some of the more sobering stories print journalism brought to your doorstep. These are stories of daily life, of being stuck in traffic, or putting up a pegboard to hang tools from, or watering the Christmas tree and imbibing a bit too much in the process. Short, quirky, and entertaining, there is a broad appeal to the columns recorded here, and plenty to relate to.

[Note: I received a copy of this title from the publisher, Paul Stokes, in exchange for an honest review.]

I found this to be a delightful set of humorous essays about family life in the spirit of Andy Rooney or Erma Bombeck.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

Having a variety of narrators kept the essays fresh and entertaining as I listened to the book. All of the narrators were pleasant to listen to and each had a performance that brought interesting and different nuances to the essays.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

For the most part, "Ship the Kids on Ahead" took me back to my childhood. I'm about the age of the kids in the story and I was often reminded of my parents and grandparents and what life was like in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I laughed out loud at several parts. The title essay hit especially close to home after having completed a long-distance trip where there were moments when shipping the kids ahead would have been sorely tempting.

Any additional comments?

The essays were fun, but at times they feel a little dated, hearkening back to a time when dad went out to work and mom stayed home to do laundry and make meals. At first having a variety of narrators for essays written by a single author was confusing, but I warmed up to the approach when I realized each narrator brought something unique to their performance.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Todd (Toad) Vogel

9/26/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Great stories and great laughs"

Any additional comments?

What a great book and so much great talent in the narration. Most of the voices are very familiar to me, having listened to them in previous books. Did you ever sit around listening to your grandfather tell stories as a kid and later in life wished you could remember them all or wished someone would have wrote them down? This is exactly that! This is a great collection of short stories by Bill Stokes that are certainly funny and all very relatable! Each of the narrators do an excellent job bringing this book to life! I really enjoyed it!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

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